Plane terror suspects convicted on all counts

September 5, 1996
Web posted at: 11:45 p.m. EDT

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The three defendants stood impassively as a
federal jury foreman in New York announced guilty verdicts to
each charge of an elaborate plot to destroy 12 U.S. airliners
in Asia last year.

The jury found Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the alleged mastermind of
the scheme, and two other defendants, Abdul Hakim Murad and
Wali Khan Amin Shah, guilty on all counts after two-and-a-
half days of deliberations.

The verdict represents a high profile victory for the Justice
Department and comes at a time of heightened concern about
terrorism.

Yousef, 29, also is the alleged mastermind of the 1993
bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and still faces
trial in that case.

Yousef, who holds an Iraqi passport, also has been linked to
schemes to assassinate President Clinton and Pope John Paul
II during the pontiff's visit to Manila.

Also convicted Thursday was Murad, 28, and Shah, believed to
be about 30. Each man was charged with seven counts of
conspiring and attempting to bomb the 12 planes in 1995. The
bombings could have killed 4,000 people aboard the planes.

"The horror of it is impossible to comprehend," said U.S.
Attorney Mary Jo White.

The defendants all face mandatory life sentences and are
scheduled for sentencing December 5, 1996. During the trial,
prosecutors called 47 witnesses over a 12-week period.

The defense called five witnesses, including a police officer from the Philippines who admitted that he had mixed up evidence he had
examined.

"Each and every one of you got an extraordinarily fair
trial," U.S. judge Kevin Duffy told them.

The attorney for Shah maintained the evidence against his
client was flimsy and said he saw several grounds for appeal.

Fire led to arrests

Officials uncovered the airline plot in January 6, 1995, when
a fire broke out in a Manila apartment where, they said,
Yousef and Murad were mixing chemicals.

Yousef fled the apartment, according to witnesses, after the
fire and eventually fled the country.

Police arrested Murad as he allegedly came back to the
apartment to clear out incriminating evidence, including
nitroglycerin, bomb-making equipment and computer disks
containing information on airline flights.

Yousef, who had been sought for 23 months prior to the fire,
was captured in Islamabad, Pakistan, the month after he fled
the Philippines.

A Secret Service agent testified during the trial that Yousef
boasted during his extradition flight to New York that he
would have blown up several jumbo jets within a few weeks if
his plan had not been discovered.

The government said the defendants even devised a name
for their airline terror plot: "Project Bojinka."

During the summer-long trial, which began in May, Yousef
represented himself. Speaking clearly and calmly in his
closing argument, he accused police in the Philippines and
Pakistan of planting evidence against him.

Yousef's self defense put him face-to-face with witnesses
such as a flight attendant who said she saw him sitting in
the Philippines Airlines seat where a bomb went off on a
later flight.

Evidence against Murad was no less compelling. Interrogation
tapes played in court depicted Murad elaborating on the
technical specifics of bomb making. He was also recorded
talking about how much he enjoys killing Americans.

Timers tested?

Prosecutors said there was little doubt that
Yousef orchestrated the "Bojinka" plot, trained his
two co-defendants and tested a watch timer.

In what prosecutors said was a test run, Yousef was charged
with placing a bomb on a Philippine Air Lines 747 flight to
Tokyo. It exploded, killing a Japanese passenger.

Defendant Shah is accused of testing a
different timer by leaving a bomb in a Manila theater.

Shah's attorney dismissed the evidence, saying his client lost three fingers from his left hand fighting in Afghanistan and was hardly a canidate to plan an airline bombing.

CNN Correspondent Brian Jenkins in New York and Reuters contributed to this report.